heeina



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. O. HERING.

UNIPOLAR DYNAMO ELECTRIC MACHINE. No. 339,772. PatentedApr. 13, 1886.

m'inwsmr [722 22 20;:- I

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

G. HERING.

UNIPOLAR DYNAMO ELECTRIC MACHINE. No. 339,772. Patented Apr. 13, 1886.

11V VEN 7 OR N. PETERS. MW, W-Hv mn. D. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CARL HERING, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO CHARLES H. BANES, OF SAME PLACE.

UNIPOLAR DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 339,772, dated April 13, 1886.

Application filed November 21, 1885. Serial No. 183,538. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL HERING, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Unipolar Electric Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of dynamo- IO electric machines or motors known in the art as unipolar machines, in which no commutator is used to commute the current.

My machine is based 011 the well-known observations of Faraday, who discovered that if 1 a metallic disk be rotated in a plane at right angles to the magnetic axis joining two opposite magnetic poles that electric currents would be thereby generated that would flow either from the circumference of the disk to its axis or in the opposite direction, according to the direction of rotation. of the disk and the polarity of the magnetic poles.

In order to obtain the most marked eilects from a machine ofthis character it is customary to entire1y,surround the rotating disk with magnet-poles, and Ihave shown in this connec tion a well-known method of most economically obtaining such poles. This method, which I do not claim as my invention, consists, essen- 0 tially, in obtaining the requisite polarity by means of a circular coil of insulated wire suitably placed in an annular groove in the inside of a heavy ring of iron so shaped as to provide a space within such a ring for the rotation of 3 5 the disk.

All unipolar machines hitherto invented, as far as I am aware, have failed of commercial applicability on account of the comparatively low electro-motive force generated by the rotation of the revolving disk.

The object of my invention is to overcome this objection and provide an electro-motive force that shall permit the machine to be ap plied directly to all the purposes for which 5 the dynamo-electric machines now in common use are suited. The means whereby I obtain this end in practice consists, in brief, of the use of more than one disk suitably insulated from the main shaft and from one another, and

provided with conductors, and brushes for taking the current off the disks, and suitably connecting them in series with one another, thus obtaining the sum of the electromotive force induced in the separate disks.

I will now describe in detail the method whereby in practice I accomplish these re sults.

Figure 1 shows in vertical section, along the line of the shaft, my improved form of unipolar machine. Fig. 2 shows a vertical section of the same, taken at right angles to the axis and in the plane of the magnet-coil and the rotating disks. Fig. 3 shows in perspective the details of the disks and their connection with one another in series. Fig. at is a verti- 6 5 cal section taken along the axis of my compounded multiple'disk unipolar machine.

The principles of my invention are applicable to the case of any metallic disks suitably rotated between the opposite poles of any mag net. Iprefer, however, in practice to employ electromagnets in which the reactive principle is employed, and find a very convenient -form for such magnets in the well-known arrangement in which a coil of insulated wire, K K, in Figs. 1 and 2, is placed inside the annular slot out or formed, as shown, on the inside of the blocks H H of iron or other magnetizable material. The blocks H H, which are represented as separate for the insertion of the magnet-coil, are afterward secured in any suitable manner. The pieces H H, so constructed and provided with the magnetizing-coil, are so shaped as to provide a cylindrical space for the rotation of the metallic disk. It is evident that upon the passage of the current in the magnetcoil K K the opposing faces of H and H may assume a polarity, such as indicated in the figure by N N S S. It is in the powerful magnetic field so provided 0 by these poles N N and S S that the mnitiple metallic disks are rotated.

I have shown, in connection with Figs. 1, 2. 3, three metallic disks, c b c, fixed to the shaft and insulated from it and from one another. 5 It is evident, however, that any number may, within certain limits, be advantageously employed.

I will now explain the means by which I collect the current from the disks and con- Ioo nect them together in series. I provide suitable brushes, 9 h i, that bear, respectively, on

or near thecircumference of the disks 0 b a. By means of a suitable aperture cut in the material H, I lead out suitable insulated condoctors that connect the brushes with the conducting-disks, placed on the axis and suitably insulated therefrom. I have shown in the figures the brushes 9 hi as connected through the conductor with the collecting-disks d e f by means of sliding contacts, that move over the edge of the disks. It is evident, however, that any other suitable arrangement can be provided. I also provide suitable conductors, Z, m, and n, connected, respectively, to the induction-disks c I) a and with the collectingdisks f e (Z, respectively. These conductors are insulated from each other and from those inducting and collecting disks with which they are not connected by being suitably passed through openings therein, as shown.

Under this arrangement of parts the currents generated in the disks, by their rotation in the magnetic field, will pass as follows: \Vith the polarity shown in Fig. 1 and the direction of rotation shown by the arrow Z, Fig. 3, the currents will pass from the circumference of the disk to the center. \Vith the connections shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, starting with the negative pole 12, that is connected byrits conductor to the induction-disk a by means of the brush 1', the current passes along -thiswire, flows through the disk a to its center, and, passing from it along the conductor it, enters the collecting-disk d, and passes from it by means of the conductor that connects it with the brush h, flows from the edge to the center of the induction-disk b, flows through the conductor m into the collecting-disk e, and passes from it along the conducting-wire to the brush 9, from which it passes through the inductiondisk 0, and finally from the conductorl to'the positive pole of the machine, placed in sliding contact with the disk f. With the connections just described it is evident that and p are the terminals of the machine, and are so connected to the induction-disks a, b, and c, as to collect in series the current generated in them on their rotation in the magnetic field.

I have shown in connection with Fig. 4 a compounded multiple-disk unipolar machine, by which I am enabled in a compact form to obtain comparatively great electro-motive force. In this form I employ amultlple magnetic field,whicl1 I obtain by means of the magnet-coils K K and K" K. In this case, however, the direction in which the current is passed through K K, as compared with that in which it passes through K K, is such that the polarity will be as representednamely, S N, N S. I have represented two disks, a and b, as being rotated in the field provided by the coil K K, and two, a and d, as being similarly rotated in the field provided by the coils 1i KIN.

I will now explain the connections whereby p and p are made the terminals of the compound multiple -disk unipolar machine. Starting at-p the current passes,

by means of the brush connectedtherewith, I

From this point ference and out through-the conductor 1' to the positive pole +11 of the machine. This arrangement of circuits, as will be seen, connects the four disks rotating in the fields provided by the two magnet-coils in series with one another.

I have described, in connection with Fig. 4, but two magnet-coils K K and K K, with two separate sets of induction-disks, a b and c (l, revolving therein. It is evident, however, that I may, if so desired, multiply these separate magnet-coils and their separate sets of induction-disks to any suitable extent-such,

for example, aswould be the case if Fig. 4 were reduplicated and suitably placed alongside the present Fig. 4 with the pole p of the new figure connected with the pole 1) of the present figure. This is shown in Fig. 5, in which P P is a conductor connecting the two left-hand sets of disks with the two right-hand sets in series. It is evident, however, to one skilled in the art that instead of connecting the two peripheries of the disks by the conductor P P, the conductor may be made to connect those disks at or near their centers, the corresponding changes of connections being made with the other disks and with the poles of the machine.

I have shown, for the sake of clearness, the collecting-brushes as being applied to the induction-disk at but one point thereon. In practice I may prefer to place such brushes completely around the disk or around a greater portion thereof than I have represented.

It is evident that the machine that I have described as a suitable source where the electric power may be generated may also be employed as an electric motor by suitably passing an electric current through it.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. In a multiple-disk unipolar electric machine or motor, the combination, with a single pair of fieldmagnet pole-pieces, of two or more separately-insulated induction-disks rotated between them in the same direction.

2. In a multiple-disk unipolar electric machine or motor, the combination, with each of two or more pairs of field-magnet pole-pieces, of two or more separately-insulated inductiondisks rotated in the same direction between each of the separate pairs of pole-pieces.

3. In a multiple-disk unipolar electric machine or motor, the combination, with a single pair of magnetic pole-pieces, of two or more separately-insulated induction-disks rotated between them in the same direction and sliding contact-brushes, and conductors connecting and carrying off the currents generated in the separate disks in series.

4. In a multiple-disk unipolar electric machine or motor in which two or more separately insulated induction disks furnished with sliding contact-brushes electrically connected therewith are rotated in the same di rection in a single magnetic field, the combination, with each of the brushes thereof, of a conductingwire leading out from one of the disks and back again to another disk, and so on through all the disks, thereby connecting them in series.

5. A compound multiple-disk unipolar electric machine or motor, consisting, substantially, in the combination, with two independent pairs of magnetic pole-pieces, between each of CARL HERING.

lVitnesses:

G120. W. CLosE, WALTER E. HERING. 

